Stat: PhRMA Sues HHS Over Medicare Drug Price Negotiation 
After losing the drug pricing fight on Capitol Hill, PhRMA is taking its battle to the courts. The pharmaceutical industry’s biggest lobbying group on Wednesday filed a long-expected lawsuit challenging Democrats’ drug pricing law that allowed Medicare to start negotiating prices for certain medicines. (Cohrs, 6/21)

Axios: PhRMA Lawsuit Challenges Biden's Drug Law In Friendly Territory
The top lobbying organization for the pharmaceutical industry yesterday filed the fourth lawsuit challenging Democrats' law that gives Medicare the power to negotiate the prices of certain drugs, this time in a Texas district court. More lawsuits give the industry more opportunities for success. And filing in this particular court means the case would run through the staunchly conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. (Owens, 6/22)

More on the debate over PBMs —

Stat: PBMs Criticized As Pushing Small Pharmacies Out Of Business
Drug middlemen once again were on the hot seat at a congressional hearing on Wednesday. The hearing by the House Education and Workforce health subcommittee was about consolidation in the hospital and health insurance sectors. No hospital or insurance company representatives testified, but JC Scott, president of the pharmacy benefit manager lobbying group Pharmaceutical Care Management Association was tapped as a witness. (Wilkerson, 6/21)

Modern Healthcare: Express Scripts Tricare False Claims Act Lawsuit Dismissed
A federal judge has dismissed a False Claims Act case against Express Scripts that accused the pharmacy benefit manager of providing excessive and medically unnecessary prescription drug refills to military personnel and families and scamming taxpayers out of billions of dollars. Judge Todd Robinson of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California wrote in a filing submitted Friday that the dismissal was warranted under the public-disclosure bar, meaning similar claims were made public prior to the lawsuit. (Berryman, 6/21)

In military health news —

Military.com: Lawmakers Advance Bill To Let Disabled Vets Collect Full Benefits, But Hurdles To Passage Remain
A key House panel has for the first time advanced a bill that would dramatically expand benefits for veterans injured in combat. In a voice vote Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee approved the Major Richard Star Act, which would ensure service members who medically retire before 20 years have full access to both military retirement pay and Department of Veterans Affairs disability benefits. (Kheel, 6/21)

Military.com: Veterans Can Now Use VA Info Line To Report Sexual Assault, Harassment
Veterans and visitors to VA facilities can now report incidents of sexual harassment or assault that occur on campus by calling the Department of Veterans Affairs' 1-800-MyVA411 information line. Officials announced Wednesday that the call center, established in 2019 to provide information on VA health care services, disability compensation and education benefits and serve as a venue to receive veterans' concerns, will take confidential reports on incidents of rape, assault or harassment. (Kime, 6/21)

In other health news from Capitol Hill —

Stat: GOP Inquiry Over Gain-Of-Function Research Targets A Scientific Giant
For more than half a century, scientist Bernard Moss has been commanding the attention of peers interested in prying biological secrets from poxviruses and other microbiological targets. Now he’s commanding the attention of a different audience: House Republicans. (Branswell, 6/22)

Stat: Doctors' Lobby Fights Expanding Open Access To Research
Doctors’ lobbyists in Washington tend to focus their energies on ensuring Medicare pays well, and on issues like so-called scope of practice laws. But in the early aughts, the American Medical Association had a surprising new focus: PubMed Central. (Trang, 6/22)

Axios: Federal Health Care Rulings Highlight Court Shopping
A handful of conservative judges, mostly in the South, are wielding outsized influence over health care policy in the Biden era. Thanks in part to former President Trump's record of judicial appointments, conservatives have ended up with an express lane of friendly judges who have issued sweeping decisions. (Gonzalez, 6/22)

Politico: Federal Judge Knocks Down Florida's Medicaid Ban On Gender-Affirming Treatment 
A federal judge struck down Florida’s prohibition on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care, the second decision to upend restrictions put into place at the urging of Gov. Ron DeSantis. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle on Wednesday ruled against the ban by using some of the same conclusions and language that he used in another recent decision where he determined three Florida transgender minors could receive “puberty blockers” and other types of gender-affirming care despite a state-enacted prohibition on such treatment for those under the age of 18. In both rulings, Hinkle has stated that “gender identity is real. The record makes this clear.” (Fineout, 6/21)

News Service of Florida: Florida Board Of Osteopathic Medicine OKs Continuation Rule On Transgender Care
The Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine on Tuesday approved an emergency rule that will allow children and adults to continue obtaining gender-affirming treatments under certain conditions. Physicians will be able to renew orders for puberty blockers and hormone therapy so long as no changes are made to the prescriptions. (6/21)

More news about transgender health care —

AP: Ohio House Passes Bans On Transgender Student Athletes And Gender-Affirming Care For Minors 
Minors in Ohio would be prohibited from receiving gender-affirming care and transgender student-athletes would be banned from participating in girls’ and women’s sports under a multifaceted proposal that cleared the state’s Republican-dominated House on Wednesday. The measure folded together two contentious bills that could drastically change the way LGBTQ+ youth live in the state, and it has parents of transgender children scrambling to figure out how to care for them as the proposal heads to the GOP-led Senate. (Hendrickson, 6/21)

AP: Transgender Health Care Restrictions Gain Steam In North Carolina 
Proposals to ban or to restrict access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youth advanced Wednesday in both chambers of North Carolina’s Republican-controlled General Assembly in the final weeks of the session. The House voted 66-47 along party lines for a bill prohibiting public health care facilities, such as public hospitals or University of North Carolina affiliates, from performing any surgical gender transition procedure on a minor, or providing them with puberty-blocking drugs or cross-sex hormones. It also prohibits using state funds to pay for gender-transition procedures starting Oct. 1 and removes access to care for trans youth who are already receiving that treatment at a state facility. (Schoenbaum, 6/22)

AP: After GOP Walkout, Oregon Passes Amended Bills On Abortion, Trans Care And Guns 
Oregon lawmakers on Wednesday officially passed amended versions of the two bills — relating to guns, and abortion and gender-affirming care, respectively — that were at the center of a six-week Republican walkout. Their final passage — coming the week after Republicans stopped their boycott and just days before the end of the legislative session on June 25 — highlighted the partisan hurdles that were overcome to bring the GOP walkout to an end. (Rush, 6/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: Experts Dispute ‘Fairness’ Arguments In Trans Athlete Participation
“The idea that asking a trans athlete to do things to create a perceived level playing field is actually asking them to do something we don’t ask of cisgender athletes,” said Eric Vilain, a pediatrician and geneticist at UC Irvine. “Just that we ask trans people to do that is a disadvantage.” Vilain mentioned how the testosterone threshold has continued to be lowered by many organizing bodies, making trans participation nearly impossible across women’s sports, despite cisgender women often having higher amounts of testosterone. (Ingemi, 6/21)

Stateline: More Blue States Declare Themselves Sanctuaries For Transgender Health Care
Democratic governors and state lawmakers across the country are mobilizing against a surge of Republican restrictions on transgender health care by establishing their states as sanctuaries for gender-affirming care. Earlier this month, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order making Maryland the 11th state, plus the District of Columbia, to declare itself a sanctuary. A bill in New York has cleared the legislature and is awaiting the signature of Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. (Hernández, 6/22)

Also —

The 19th: The 19th Explains: What Is Gender-Affirming Care? 
Misinformation about what gender-affirming care is — and is not — has grown more rampant and has been increasingly weaponized. Transgender Americans feel like their health care is being used in a political tug-of-war as state lawmakers, members of Congress, super PACs and news outlets mischaracterize medical services that have existed for decades. So what is gender-affirming care, exactly? And why is it important? (Rummler and Sosin, 6/21)

The Hill: Musk Says ‘Cis,’ ‘Cisgender’ Considered Slurs On Twitter 
Elon Musk said the words “cis” and “cisgender” are now considered slurs on Twitter and suggested that “repeated, targeted” use of those words could be subject to suspensions. ... The word cisgender is commonly used to refer to people who are not transgender or gender-fluid. Merriam-Webster defines the word as “of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity corresponds with the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth.” (Fortinsky, 6/21)

The Washington Post: Effects Of Dobbs On Maternal Health Care Overwhelmingly Negative, Survey Shows
Sweeping restrictions and even outright abortion bans adopted by states in the year since the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling have had an overwhelmingly negative effect on maternal health care, according to a survey of OBGYNs released Wednesday that provides one of the clearest views yet of how the U.S. Supreme Court decision has affected women’s health care in the United States. The poll by the health research nonprofit KFF reveals that the Dobbs ruling — which ended federal protection on the right to abortion — affected maternal mortality and how pregnancy-related medical emergencies are managed, precipitated a rise in requests for sterilization and has done much more than restrict abortion access. Many OBGYNs said it has also made their jobs more difficult and legally perilous than before, while leading to worse outcomes for patients. (Bellware and Guskin, 6/21)

The 19th: Abortion Bans Are Causing ‘Chilling Effect’ For OBGYNs, Study Says 
It’s been one year since the Supreme Court ended the federal right to an abortion, and OBGYNs say that it has impacted their ability to perform miscarriages and react in pregnancy-related emergencies, according to a new KFF national survey released Wednesday. Now, they fear those restrictions have led to worse maternal mortality rates, and they fear for future recruitment and retention in their profession. (Padilla, 6/21)

CNN: Report Finds Nationwide Spike In Preventable Deaths, Maternal Mortality And Medical Bills 
A new report puts US states’ health care systems on a scorecard, with Massachusetts coming out on top. But it also highlights alarming trends across the country, especially in areas like premature deaths and women’s health care. (Viswanathan, 6/22)

AP: A Year After Fall Of Roe, 25 Million Women Live In States With Abortion Bans Or Tighter Restrictions 
One year ago Saturday, the U.S. Supreme Court rescinded a five-decade-old right to abortion, prompting a seismic shift in debates about politics, values, freedom and fairness. Twenty-five million women of childbearing age now live in states where the law makes abortions harder to get than they were before the ruling. Decisions about the law are largely in the hands of state lawmakers and courts. Most Republican-led states have restricted abortion. Fourteen ban abortion in most cases at any point in pregnancy. Twenty Democratic-leaning states have protected access to abortion. Here’s a look at what’s changed since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling. (Mulvihill, Kruesi and Savage, 6/22)

NPR: Googling 'Abortion Clinic Near Me'? The Top Result Is Often An Anti-Abortion Clinic
When people are looking for abortion services, they often turn to Google, searching a phrase like "abortion clinic near me" or "planned parenthood." Yet the ads they'll see at the top of the Google search results are often not abortion providers at all, but instead misleading ads for anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy centers" — facilities that use various tactics to dissuade or delay pregnant people from getting an abortion. (Wamsley, 6/22)

Abortion updates from Wyoming, New York, Missouri, and Illinois —

AP: Judge To Weigh Suspending Wyoming's First-In-The-Nation Ban On Abortion Pills
Wyoming’s first-in-the-nation ban on abortion pills will come before a state judge Thursday as the court considers whether the prohibition should take effect as planned July 1 or be put on hold pending the outcome of a lawsuit. While other states have instituted de facto bans on the medication by broadly prohibiting abortion, Wyoming in March became the first U.S. state to specifically ban abortion pills. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that access to one of the two pills, mifepristone, may continue while litigants seeking to overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of it. (Gruver, 6/22)

Reuters: Challenge To Abortion Clinic 'Buffer Zone' Law Rejected By US Court 
A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld a New York county's law barring anti-abortion activists from approaching people outside abortion clinics, teeing up potential review by the U.S. Supreme Court. (Wiessner, 6/21)

Axios: Becerra To Travel To Missouri-Illinois Clinics To Mark Dobbs Anniversary
The nation's top health official plans to visit two Planned Parenthood clinics on opposite sides of the Missouri-Illinois border Friday morning to highlight the differences that have occurred in each state since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, an HHS spokesperson tells Axios. (Reed, 6/21)

In other reproductive health news —

KFF Health News: Black, Rural Southern Women At Gravest Risk From Pregnancy Miss Out On Maternal Health Aid
As maternal mortality skyrockets in the United States, a federal program created to improve rural maternity care has bypassed Black mothers, who are at the highest risk of complications and death related to pregnancy. The grant-funded initiative, administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration, began rolling out four years ago and, so far, has budgeted nearly $32 million to provide access and care for thousands of mothers and babies nationwide — for instance, Hispanic women along the Rio Grande or Indigenous mothers in Minnesota. (Tribble, 6/22)

NBC News: Doctors Say HCA Hospitals Push Patients Into Hospice Care To Improve Mortality Stats
This article is based on interviews with six nurses and 27 doctors who currently practice at 16 HCA hospitals in seven states or did so previously. All said their HCA hospitals pushed palliative and end-of-life care in pursuit of better performance metrics. Internal HCA hospital documents and texts between hospital staffers provided to NBC News support these health care professionals’ views. (Morgenson, 6/21)

Asheville Watchdog: North Carolina AG Threatens HCA With Litigation
The North Carolina Department of Justice today expressed “serious concerns” about HCA Healthcare’s compliance with the commitments it made as a condition of acquiring Asheville’s nonprofit Mission Hospital system in 2019. In a June 20 letter to Greg Lowe, CEO of HCA’s North Carolina Division, the North Carolina Attorney General’s office cited HCA’s sharp reduction in cancer services, consisting of just one physician “where it once had as many as 14.” (Jones and Lewis, 6/20)

On health care personnel —

Philadelphia Inquirer: Nursing Home Inspectors Are In Short Supply, According To Report
Sen. Bob Casey worries that many of the 1 million-plus people living in 15,000 nursing homes across the United States are in facilities that haven’t been inspected for a long time. About one in four nursing homes hadn’t been inspected in at least 16 months, as required by federal law. (Gutman, 6/22)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Nurses At Fox Chase Cancer Center Vote To Unionize
Nurses working at Fox Chase Cancer Center have voted to unionize, becoming the latest group of workers to form a collective-bargaining unit in recent months at the Northeast Philadelphia specialty hospital. Nearly 80% of the roughly 350 registered nurses who work at the Cottman Avenue center participated in Tuesday’s election, which was administered by the National Labor Relations Board. (Gutman and McLellan Ravitch, 6/21)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Voters Could Clamp Down On Pay For Hospital Executives
Los Angeles voters will decide next spring whether to clamp down on pay for hospital executives, capping their total wages and other compensation at $450,000 annually, after the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to put the proposed measure on the March 2024 ballot. The L.A. ballot measure is backed by a union representing healthcare workers, which argues pay for hospital executives has been excessive and out of line with the mission of providing affordable care. (Alpert Reyes, 6/21)

In other health care industry news —

New Hampshire Public Radio: NH Providers Report Harvard Pilgrim Payments Delays After Cyberattack
A recent cyberattack exposed the personal information of more than 2 million current and former Harvard Pilgrim Health Care customers, including in New Hampshire. But it has also interfered with the insurer's ability to pay out medical claims, and some local providers say that's creating significant strain. (Dario, 6/21)

NBC News: Harvard Human Remains Case Highlights Need For Body Donation Regulations, Experts Say
The prosecution of a former Harvard Medical School employee over an alleged human remains theft ring prompted experts to call for federal rules for a practice that they said is largely unregulated and has grown in recent years with the rise of for-profit “body brokers." (Stelloh, 6/22)

Stat: New Company Forms To Vet Health AI Models, Root Out Weaknesses
The market for artificial intelligence in health care is about as transparent as a brick wall. New tools achieve impressive results in published studies. But it is often difficult to compare them head to head with similar products, or tell whether they will work on different kinds of patients. (Ross, 6/21)

NBC News: CDC Panel Recommends RSV Vaccines For Adults Ages 65 And Up
Adults ages 65 and up should get one of the newly approved RSV vaccines, an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided Wednesday. The committee voted 9-5 to recommend two different RSV vaccines for adults ages 65 and up, from the pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and GSK. Thirteen members also voted to recommend the shots for adults ages 60 to 64 based on individual risk levels and in consultation with doctors, with one committee member abstaining. (Bendix, 6/21)

On mpox and measles —

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: St. Louis County Reports Its First Mpox Case Of The Year
St. Louis County on Wednesday reported its first confirmed mpox case of the year after a lull in the worldwide outbreak that hit the U.S. in May of last year. The case follows an increase in mpox cases in the Chicago area, which saw more than two dozen cases in April and early May. (Munz, 6/21)

NBC News: CDC Says To Make Sure You're Protected Against Measles Ahead Of Summer Travel
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning Americans to make sure they're fully protected against the measles before traveling internationally this summer. The agency issued a health advisory Wednesday urging that people make certain they've had two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, vaccine at least two weeks before traveling to areas of the world with active measles outbreaks. (Edwards, 6/21)

On malaria, mosquitoes, and heat —

Health News Florida: A Second Case Of Malaria In A Month Has Been Confirmed In The Sarasota-Manatee Area 
A second case of malaria in less than a month has been confirmed in the Sarasota-Manatee area, health officials said Monday. Officials said the patient is receiving treatment and recovering, but didn’t specify where in region the transmission was reported. A previous case was confirmed on May 26. Officials said that person spent extensive time outdoors, was treated promptly at a hospital and has recovered. (6/21)

Axios: Mosquito Days Are Getting Worse Due To Climate Change
The number of "mosquito days" — that is, those with the hot and humid weather the flying insects crave — has increased in many U.S. cities over the past several decades, per a new analysis. ... Mosquitoes are more than just a nuisance — they're a public health threat, carrying diseases such as malaria, West Nile, Zika and more. (Fitzpatrick, 6/22)

Axios: Extreme Heat In Texas, Southern U.S., May Linger Into Fourth Of July Holiday
An "oppressive" record-breaking heat wave that's helped fuel deadly storms in Texas and surrounding states could continue through the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the National Weather Service warned Wednesday. Extreme heat poses a threat to people's health, can lead to hospitals dealing with an influx of patients with heat-related illnesses, and it's the top weather-related killer in the U.S. in a typical year. It also puts a heavy strain on power grids. (Falconer, 6/21)

Dallas Morning News: USPS Carrier Dies Of Possible Heat-Related Illness While Working Dallas Route
A U.S. Postal Service carrier died Tuesday of a possible heat-related illness while working a Dallas route, the service confirmed in a statement. USPS said the carrier was with the Lakewood post office. Kimetra Lewis, president of the Dallas branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers, identified him as 66-year-old Eugene Gates Jr. (Landers, 6/21)

Military.com: Protections For Troops Booted Over COVID Vaccine Mandate Added To House Defense Bill 
House Republicans moved Wednesday to protect former service members who were discharged over the military's now-defunct COVID-19 vaccine mandate, including easing their path to reinstatement. Troops who were discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine could be reinstated at the rank held when they were separated and without the discharge affecting future career advancement under one of a series of amendments related to the vaccine mandate approved by the House Armed Services Committee. The committee was debating its version of the annual defense policy bill. (Kheel, 6/21)

Washington Post: GOP: Biden Violated First Amendment By Pressing Big Tech On Covid Misinfo
“The Biden administration strong-armed Big Tech companies to shut down debate in the name of science,” argued Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), who chairs the House’s select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic. He said the attempt to “censor speech” demands a congressional response, though he didn’t say what that might be. (Oremus, 6/21)

The New York Times: U.S. Intelligence Agencies May Never Find Covid’s Origins, Officials Say
For three years, the U.S. government has been tied in knots over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, frustrated that China’s hindrance of investigations and unwillingness to look critically at its own research have obscured what intelligence agencies can learn about whether the virus escaped from a lab. (Barnes, 6/21)

Politifact: No, The COVID-19 Vaccines Don’t Contain ‘Monkey Virus DNA’
Social media users are claiming a dangerous ingredient has been found in COVID-19 vaccines. The claim comes from a June 11 Epoch Times article headlined, "Monkey virus DNA found in COVID-19 shots." (6/21)

BBC News: UK Covid Deaths Among Worst Of Big European Economies
The UK had one of the worst increases in death rates of major European economies during the Covid pandemic, BBC analysis has found. Death rates in the UK were more than 5% higher on average each year of the pandemic than in the years just before it, largely driven by a huge death toll in the first year. That was above the increase seen in France, Spain or Germany, but below Italy and significantly lower than the US. (Cuffe and Rogers, 6/22)

Also —

CIDRAP: Antidepressant Users May Be Less Likely To Test Positive For COVID-19 
New research published in BMC Medicine suggests that using antidepressants (ADs), especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), could help prevent COVID-19 infection. .. Mental health patients with a recent (previous 90 days) prescription for an SSRI had an almost 40% reduction in the likelihood of a positive COVID-19 test. (Soucheray, 6/21)

AP: New York Lawmakers OK Bill Removing Medical Debt From Credit Reports 
Hospitals and other health care providers in New York would be banned from reporting medical debt to credit agencies under a bill passed this week by the state’s legislature — a measure intended to limit the damage that illness and injury can do to someone’s financial health. If signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, the law would make New York the second state, after Colorado, to prohibit medical debt from being collected by credit reporting agencies or included in a credit report. (Khan, 6/21)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

Chicago Tribune: Gov. Pritzker Hit On Closing Health Care Enrollment For Immigrants
Backlash continued to rain down on Gov. J.B. Pritzker Wednesday following his decision last week to close enrollment for a state-funded health insurance program for immigrants under 65 as other Illinois officials highlighted that a bill is sitting on the governor’s desk that would allow the state to issue regular driver’s licenses for noncitizens. Though not connected, the two issues took center stage as Pritzker continues to push back against criticism from Latino lawmakers and immigrant advocates that his administration’s decision on the health insurance program was “immoral and fiscally shortsighted.” Pritzker has defended the move because program costs are skyrocketing. (Gorner, 6/21)

Bangor Daily News: Maine's Childhood Vaccination Rates Increased Dramatically In The Past 2 Years
Even more Maine students received required vaccines during the 2022-23 school year, two years after the state enacted an immunization law for school-age children. Not long ago Maine had one of the lowest rates of childhood vaccination in the nation, with vaccine opt-out rates reaching the sixth-highest mark in the nation   during the 2018-19 school year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Stockley, 6/21)

AP: Navajo Nation Declares Widespread Medicaid Scam In Arizona A Public Health State Of Emergency 
A widespread Arizona Medicaid scam that has left an unknown number of Native Americans homeless on the streets of metro Phoenix is being declared a public health state of emergency by the Navajo Nation as fraudulent sober living homes lose their funding and turn former residents out onto the streets. The emergency declaration was issued late last week by the Navajo Nation Commission on Emergency Management and signed this week by Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, according to documents posted on the Facebook page of the tribe’s Operation Rainbow Bridge, which was created to deal with the scam’s effects on its enrolled members. (Snow, 6/22)

Oklahoman: Oklahoma Producing 64 Times More Marijuana Than Licensed Users Consume, Report Shows
Oklahoma may be producing 64 times more marijuana than needed by licensed cannabis consumers, according to a study commissioned by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority. The significant oversupply is likely funneling large amounts of marijuana out of state and adding to the illegal market, according to authority officials. (Felder, 6/21)

USA Today: Against Backdrop Of A Mental Health Care Shortage, Emergency Room Doctors Are Overwhelmed
A 9-year-old boy lived for weeks in a hospital emergency room, dressed in paper scrubs, because his parents couldn't handle him and the state's social services agency had nowhere to place him. A 14-year-old spent more than four weeks in an emergency room in a community with no beds for a teen with mental health needs. (Alltucker, 6/21)

Stat: Amid Soaring Need, 988 Operator Taps AI To Boost Counselor Skills
Over 1,000 times a day, distressed people call crisis support lines operated by Protocall Services. Its counselors are carefully trained for the sensitive and taxing conversations, but even with supervision on the job, major errors, like failing to screen for suicide, can go undetected. So Portland, Ore.-based Protocall is working with a company called Lyssn to investigate if technology can help keep call quality high. (Aguilar, 6/22)

Fox News: Spike In Teen Depression Aligns With Rise Of Social Media, New Poll Suggests: ‘It’s Not Going Anywhere’ 
"I can’t do anything right." "I do not enjoy life." "My life is not useful." The share of teens who agree with these phrases has doubled over the past decade, according to an annual poll conducted by the University of Michigan — and one expert asserts that the increase in depressive symptoms is tied to the rise of social media. (Rudy, 6/21)

The Washington Post: How Millennial Celebrities Are Helping Change Mental Health Stigma
As demand for mental health help has vaulted higher, celebrities ranging from musicians to TV stars to athletes have used their platforms and public profiles to discuss their own mental health challenges. It is both reflective of the broader societal shift that has destigmatized the discussion of emotional and mental health, and a trend that has made an impact in encouraging people to speak up about or address issues in their own lives. (Adelson, 6/21)

Bloomberg: Tackling Burnout By Tracking Employee Wellness Data 
Transparency might be the best salve to treat work-induced burnout, new data show. Some 85% of C-suite executives believe that organizations should require mandatory reporting of well-being metrics, according to a study released Wednesday by research firm Deloitte and Workplace Intelligence. Yet only half of those executives think their own companies are doing a good enough job promoting transparency. (Gindis, 6/21)

Health News Florida: Mental Health Providers Back College Board's Decision To Keep Gender In AP Psychology
Central Florida mental health providers are voicing support for the College Board’s decision to keep gender identity and sexuality in AP Psychology classes in Florida. The College Board says it won’t modify its AP Psychology curriculum after the Florida Department of Education asked it to remove all references to gender identity and sexuality. (Prieur, 6/21)

If you are in need of help —

Dial 9-8-8 for 24/7 support from the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It's free and confidential.

The New York Times: The U.S. Population Is Older Than It Has Ever Been 
The median age in the United States reached a record high of 38.9 in 2022, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau. It’s a rapid rise. In 2000, the median age was 35, and in 1980, the median was 30. While many 38-year-old millennials may still feel young, that age is an unusually high median for the country. (Goldstein, 6/22)

On cancer —

USA Today: Study: Genetics Can Explain Why Sex Matters In Some Cancer Outcomes
It's long been known men fare worse with colon cancer than women. The presumption was male smoking habits, extra meat consumption and maybe hormones made the difference. But a pair of studies out Wednesday in the journal Nature finds genetics can sometimes explain why sex matters. (Weintraub, 6/21)

Stat: New DNA Test Aims To Improve Cervical Cancer Screening
A genomic test for the human papillomavirus has shown promise in early-stage trials, raising hopes that it could bolster cervical cancer screening among women living in sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest rates of cervical cancer deaths worldwide. (Tsanni, 6/21)

Los Angeles Times: Cooking With Gas May Be As Bad As Inhaling Secondhand Smoke 
Cooking with gas-fired stoves can cause unsafe levels of toxics to accumulate inside homes, exposing people to roughly the same cancer risk as breathing secondhand cigarette smoke, according to a new study. Researchers from Stanford University and nonprofit PSE Healthy Energy tested gas and propane stoves in 87 homes across California and Colorado and found that every appliance produced a detectable amount of cancer-causing benzene — a chemical with no safe level of exposure. (Briscoe, 6/21)

On nutrition —

CNN: FDA To Test Out Nutrition Labels On The Front Of Food Packaging
The United States Food and Drug Administration will test out labels on the front of food packages in the hope of giving shoppers better access to nutrition information, the agency said. The goal is to address diet-related chronic disease by “empowering consumers with nutrition information to help them more easily identify healthier choices and encouraging industry innovation to produce healthier foods,” the FDA said in a recent regulatory filing. (Holcombe, 6/21)

The New York Times: Lab-Grown Meat Approved To Sell For The First Time In The U.S.
The Agriculture Department approved the production and sale of laboratory-grown meat for the first time on Wednesday, clearing the way for two California companies to sell chicken produced from animal cells. ... Supporters of alternative proteins along with the companies that sought federal approval — Upside Foods and Good Meat — celebrated the news as pivotal for the meat industry and the broader food system at a moment of growing concern about the environmental impact of meat production and its treatment of animals. (Qiu, 6/21)

The Washington Post: Athletes Swear By Ketone Drinks. A New Study Says They Don’t Work
Many competitive athletes, especially cyclists and runners, swear by ketone drinks, a popular sports supplement that promises to improve athletic performance by packing many of the purported benefits of a low-carb, high-fat, ketogenic diet into a single beverage. ... But in a new study, the supplement didn’t amplify recreational cyclists’ racing speed and instead left them performing worse after swallowing the beverage than after a placebo. It also gave many of them gas. (Reynolds, 6/21)

The Boston Globe: Flagship Pioneering Unveils New Biotech Focused On ‘Small Molecule’ Drugs
The venture capital firm behind the coronavirus vaccine maker Moderna on Wednesday unveiled a new Cambridge biotech called Empress Therapeutics, a small startup that says it has created 15 drug molecules in less than two years and hopes to test them on a wide range of diseases. (Saltzman, 6/21)

Stat: Flagship Launches Small Molecule Startup, Despite IRA’s Shadow
It’s been nearly a year since Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, raising a chorus of drug executive and investor complaints that it would decimate the development of small-molecule medicines. After all, it opens the door for Medicare to negotiate the price of small-molecule drugs after nine years on the market (as opposed to 13 years for biologic drugs like vaccines, cell therapies, or gene therapies). But the law hasn’t brought a total halt to all such drug development — at least, not yet. (DeAngelis, 6/21)

In news about the opioid crisis —

Keene Sentinel: Cheshire Medical Center To Pay $2 Million Fine In Fentanyl Case 
Cheshire Medical Center will pay $2 million in connection with the months-long incident where gallons of fentanyl solution were lost or unaccounted for at the Keene hospital. "Cheshire Medical Center’s failure to fulfill its obligations under the Controlled Substance Act enabled the theft of prescription narcotics — including powerful opioids such as fentanyl, which led to a shockingly high percentage of drugs missing from CMS’s inventory. The failures uncovered warranted a multi-million-dollar penalty and a stringent corrective action plan," U.S. Attorney Jane Young said in a news release Wednesday from the Department of Justice announcing the settlement. (Belanger, 6/21)

Houston Chronicle: Houston Opioid Program Uses Pharmaceutical Settlement Funds
Millions of settlement dollars from pharmaceutical companies will go to Houston programs addressing the health impact of opioids. Since 2021, Texas has secured more than $150 million in legal settlements from opioid manufacturers, pharmaceutical distributors and other companies over their alleged role in fueling the opioid crisis in the United States. Some of the money from these settlements is now reaching cities and counties throughout Texas to bolster their public health programs. (Cheng, 6/21)

The New York Times: New Fentanyl Laws Ignite Debate Over Combating Overdose Crisis
Approaches to drug addiction have evolved in recent years, with both states and the federal government allocating more funds for treatment and prevention. The Biden administration has embraced the concept of “harm reduction” — the short-range goal of making drugs less dangerous for users. The Food and Drug Administration has approved an overdose reversal medication, Narcan, for purchase over the counter. But to many public health experts, the tough new fentanyl laws seem like a replay of the war-on-drugs sentencing era of the 1980s and ’90s that responded to crack and powder cocaine. They worry the result will be similar: The incarcerated will be mostly low-level dealers, particularly people of color, who may be selling to support their addictions. (Hoffman, 6/21)

AP: Tel Aviv University Removes Sackler Family, Makers Of OxyContin, From Medical School's Full Name
Tel Aviv University announced on Wednesday that it has removed the Sackler family from the full name of its medical school after decades of donations from the makers of OxyContin. ... The Sacklers have been donors to the university for 50 years, it said. (6/21)

CIDRAP: Spread Of Enterovirus D68 Linked To Polio-Like Illness May Have Risen 50% Over 10 Years
Transmission of enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), a respiratory RNA virus first identified in California in 1962, appears to have started accelerating before 2011, which could partly explain a more recent upswing in cases and outbreaks of related diseases around the world, suggests a study published in eLife. (Van Beusekom, 6/21)

CIDRAP: How Sequencing, Collaboration Solved The Pseudomonas Outbreak Tied To Eye Drops
Although the outbreak is technically over, its impact could be felt for years, because the P aeruginosa strain that caused it—a strain not previously seen in the United States—is now circulating in US healthcare facilities and is likely here to stay. "I think that it's unlikely that we're going to eradicate this strain from US healthcare facilities," CDC epidemiologist and lead outbreak investigator Maroya Walters, PhD, told CIDRAP News. (Dall, 6/16)

ScienceDaily: What Role Does Alternative Splicing Play In Neurodegenerative Disease? 
Scientists have written a review to discuss emerging research and evidence of the roles of alternative splicing defects in major neurodegenerative diseases. They also summarize the latest advances in RNA-based therapeutic strategies to target these disorders. (University of California - Riverside, 6/20)

The Atlantic: A Germ Theory For The Internet
For years, a primary metaphor for the internet has been the “town square,” an endless space for free expression where everyone can have their say. But as scaled digital platforms have grown to dominate most of modern life, metaphors centered solely on speech have failed to explain our current civic dysfunction. (Thomas Krendl Gilbert and Nathaniel Lubin, 6/21)

Stat: Jerome Adams On The Need For New Antivirals For Covid 
The U.S. Covid-19 Public Health Emergency declaration may have ended, but the virus remains. Now is the moment to leverage the successes and challenges of fostering innovative Covid therapeutics to prepare for the future waves that we inevitably face from new variants. (Jerome Adams, 6/22)

The New York Times: The Government Must Say What It Knows About Covid’s Origins 
Three researchers at a laboratory in Wuhan, China, who had fallen ill in November 2019 had been experimenting with SARS-like coronaviruses under inadequate biosafety conditions, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing current and former U.S. officials. (Zeynep Tufekci, 6/21)

Miami Herald: Remove The Stigma And Address The Mental Health And Well-Being Of Black Men
To truly address the mental-health disparities men face, it is essential to implement comprehensive strategies. These include increasing access to mental health services, fostering culturally competent care and combating the stigma of seeking help. (Ruban Roberts, 6/21)

Stat: Tori Bowie And The Unacceptable Rates Of Black Maternal Death
The horror stories of Black women dying or coming close to death in childbirth never seem to stop coming. The most recent headlines have been about the tragic case of three-time Olympian Tori Bowie, who died in her home from childbirth complications. Her teammate Tianna Madison wrote on Instagram, “THREE (3) of the FOUR (4) of us who ran on the SECOND fastest 4x100m relay of all time, the 2016 Olympic Champions have nearly died or died in childbirth.” (Omare Jimmerson, 6/21)

The CT Mirror: CT Teens Are Being Targeted By Big Vape
We are living in an age where e-cigarette companies look to create a whole new generation of nicotine addicts, where addiction is treated as a crime, and where public policy aiming to prevent youth addictions has failed America’s children. (Juan Borrego, 6/21)